Online donation page: what to include, and why

An online donation page needs seven things: one clear ask, suggested gift amounts drawn from what your donors actually give, a monthly giving option on the first screen, only the fields you are required to collect, a choice about who pays the processing fee, a layout that works on a phone, and a thank-you that says what the gift does. Everything else is optional, and most of it slows the page down.

The situation is familiar to any development director or finance director. The appeal goes out on Tuesday, the link points at one generic page that has been up since last spring, and by Friday you have gifts you cannot attribute to anything, a few donors who typed the wrong amount, and no idea how many people started the form and quit.

This post walks the page from the headline to the receipt: what belongs on it, what to cut, where campaigns and nonprofits need different things, and the report to pull before you set a single suggested amount.

Key Takeaways
– Set suggested amounts from your most common past gift, not your average. One large gift pulls an average away from what people really give.
– Put the monthly option on the first screen, with the monthly figure shown next to the one-time figure, so the donor never has to do the math.
– Campaigns and nonprofits collect different donor information. Federal committees itemize contributors above a threshold the FEC sets, and nonprofits owe donors a written acknowledgment at the level the IRS sets.
– Build a separate donation page for each appeal and tag the gifts, or you will spend January guessing which email raised the money.

What every online donation page needs

Use this as the checklist before you send the link to anyone:

1. A headline that names the ask. “Help us keep the pantry open through winter” tells the donor what the money does. “Donate” does not.
2. Three or four suggested amounts and an open field. The buttons speed up the decision, and the open field keeps you from capping the gift.
3. A monthly option the donor can see without scrolling, not a checkbox tucked under the billing fields.
4. A short form. Every extra field is a chance to quit.
5. One line about processing fees that makes the donor’s choice plain.
6. A layout that works on a phone. Most appeal links get opened on a phone, and a form that needs pinching to read does not get finished.
7. A thank-you message written by a person, on screen the second the gift goes through.

You can build all of that once and reuse it. FundHero’s Donation Pages, Recurring Donations, and Fee Coverage start from customizable templates, are mobile-optimized, and take under five minutes to set up, so a new page for a new appeal is not a project.

Set suggested amounts from your own giving history

Pull a report of last year’s gifts before you pick any numbers. You are looking for your most common gift, not your average. A single $5,000 gift drags an average up to a number nobody gives, and a page built on that number quietly asks everyone for too much.

Here is the rule that works for most small organizations and local campaigns:

• Find your most common gift amount, say $50.
• Make it the second of four buttons.
• Set the rest at roughly half, double, and four times it: $25, $50, $100, $250.
• Add an “other amount” field to the right of the buttons.
• Preselect nothing. A preselected top amount reads as a demand.

Campaigns have one more step. Contribution limits differ by state, by office, and by election, so confirm yours with your state’s election office before your top suggested amount goes live. A button that invites an over-the-limit gift creates a refund and an awkward phone call.

Put the monthly option on your online donation page first

A monthly donor gives you money you can plan around, and the donation page is where most of them sign up. Show the monthly choice next to the one-time choice, at the same size, and show the donor the math: “$15 a month” rather than “$180 a year, billed monthly.”

Two small things move more monthly gifts than any amount of persuasion. Name what the monthly gift covers, because “$15 a month keeps one family in groceries for a week” gives the donor a reason to pick the smaller recurring number over a bigger one-time gift. Then say how to stop. A line reading “change or cancel any time” answers the objection that keeps most people on the one-time button.

Once the recurring gifts start, the follow-up matters more than the sign-up. Our post on building a monthly giving program that holds covers the cadence: what to send after the first charge, and what to do when a card expires.

Ask for the fields you are required to collect, and nothing else

This is where campaigns and nonprofits part ways, and where most pages go wrong in opposite directions.

Campaigns collect more, and they have to collect it at the moment of the gift. Federal committees keep and report specific information about their contributors, including occupation and employer once a contributor passes the aggregate threshold set out in the FEC’s guidance on keeping records. State and local races follow their own state’s rules rather than the federal ones.

Two more things to settle before the page goes up. Ask the FEC or your state’s office whether your page needs a disclaimer saying who paid for it, and what that line has to read. Then put the required fields on the form itself, because chasing an employer field by email three weeks later is the worst version of this job.

Nonprofits need name, email, and mailing address, and not much else. The IRS sets the substantiation rules donors rely on to claim a deduction, including when a written acknowledgment is required and what it has to say. Its page on substantiating charitable contributions is the source to write your receipt copy against. None of this is legal advice, and both sets of rules change, so confirm yours before you publish.

Everything past those requirements is optional, and optional fields cost you gifts. Employer, phone number, “how did you hear about us”, a comment box: cut each one unless you can name the report it feeds.

Decide who pays the processing fee, and say so plainly

Every online gift carries a processing fee. Somebody pays it: you, out of the gift, or the donor, on top of it. Fee Coverage lets the donor choose. Present the choice as one line of plain text next to a checkbox, and keep guilt out of the sentence.

Cover the processing fee so 100% of my gift goes to the food bank.

Swap in your own name and leave the sentence that short. Two rules keep this clean. Never preselect it for the donor, and never imply that declining shortchanges anyone. If you want to compare what the fee actually costs across tools before you decide, the FundHero pricing page lists its processing rate, and our guide to choosing donor management software walks through comparing them fairly.

What your online donation page does after the donate button

The page is not finished when the money moves. Three things have to happen, and two of them should happen without anyone remembering.

The first is on screen, immediately: a thank-you message you wrote, not a receipt number. Say what the gift does and what happens next. The thank-you message, the suggested amounts, and the button color are all customizable on a FundHero donation page, so this is five minutes of work rather than a ticket for whoever built your website.

The second happens in your records. Automatic Donation Tracking adds the donor account and the donation record when the money comes in, and the gift lands on the donor’s Contact History next to the calls and the emails. Nobody retypes anything into a spreadsheet on Monday.

The third comes from a person, within 48 hours. A receipt is not a thank-you. Set the rule, then let the list carry it. A Smart Group of gifts that have not been acknowledged yet turns the rule into a short list somebody works through on Monday, which is what Smart Groups and Donor Profiles are for.

Build one page per appeal, then tag the gifts

One permanent donation page cannot tell you which email worked. Build a page for each occasion: the year-end appeal, the spring event, the finance committee’s personal asks. Send each audience its own link.

Then tag the gifts. Activity Tags on donations and pledges record where a gift came from, so the report you pull in January answers “which appeal raised this” instead of showing one undifferentiated pile. Unlimited donation pages come with the Professional and Organization plans, and the Starter plan includes one.

A practical setup for a small shop:

That is three pages and three tags, and it is enough for the January report to tell you which appeal to repeat.

FAQ

How long should an online donation page be?
Short enough that a donor can finish it on a phone in under a minute. That usually means one screen of amount choices and one screen of contact and payment fields. Anything that does not feed a report you actually pull, or a rule you are actually required to follow, comes off the page.

What suggested donation amounts should I use?
Use your most common past gift as the anchor, then set the other buttons at roughly half, double, and four times it. Pull last year’s gifts and count them by amount rather than averaging them, because one large gift skews an average. Campaigns should confirm state contribution limits before setting the top button.

Should my donation page ask donors to cover the processing fees?
Offering the choice is reasonable; preselecting it is not. Put the option next to a plain sentence saying what it covers, leave it unchecked, and never suggest that declining makes the gift worth less. Fee Coverage handles this as a donor choice on the page.

What information do I have to collect from donors?
It depends on who you are. Campaigns follow the FEC or their state’s campaign finance office, which set what contributor information has to be recorded and reported. Nonprofits should write receipts against the IRS substantiation guidance. Past those requirements, collect name, email, and address, and cut the rest.

How fast should I thank an online donor?
Aim for a personal thank-you within 48 hours, separate from the automatic receipt. The receipt confirms the transaction. The thank-you is what makes the second gift likely. A list of gifts that have not been acknowledged yet turns the rule into something somebody can finish on a Monday morning.

Do I need a separate donation page for each appeal?
Yes, if you want to know what worked. One permanent page gives you a single total. A page for each appeal, with a tag on every gift, gives you a report that names the email that raised the most.

Start with the page you already have

Open your current online donation page on your phone and read it the way a donor would. Can you tell what the money does from the first line? Are the suggested amounts based on what people actually give, or on a round number somebody picked? Is the monthly option visible before you scroll? Are you asking for anything you cannot tie to a report or a rule?

Fix those four things this week. Then pull last year’s gifts, reset the amounts, build a second page for your next appeal, and tag both so January’s report can tell them apart.

If you want to see how a donation page, the donor record behind it, and the acknowledgment list fit together, start a free FundHero trial. No payment information is required, and you can build a real page with your own suggested amounts before you decide anything.